Assemble Identity

Wednesday 3rd March 2021

This was the task:

'Take time to gather & revisit your thoughts in particular we ask you think about all of the written material you have generated since the beginning of the stage 1&2. This material should contain vital cues, indicators & confirmations as to how you have developed & what you are about as a practitioner. Though your work is in assessment, we ask you to write 10 sentences, bullet points which you strongly identify/resonate with or which you feel describe you or your working practice. These should include a spread of information to do with: materials/technical experimentation, Ideas, themes/subject matter, key contextual research points, own working methods/practices. Collate these in the list below. Be brief, you can expand on these sentences once you have access to all of your written details after the assessment has been completed.'

This exercise was quite easy but was quite time consuming. I read through every blogpost I have written so far in Year 2 and I chose a few things that I thought showed my development, thoughts and inspirations. After that I did the following task:

'Use the 10 points above as keys to carefully write 150 words through which you sum up where you are at the moment within your personal practice. You should indicate any new skills/understanding acquired through your chosen specialism & how this has altered your view of your own working practices as well as any changes to your understanding/expectations of yourself as an artist/designer. Refrain from looking ahead at this stage, rather use this activity to consolidate & define your current position.'

It took a few rewrites to be fully satisfied with what I wrote. I am not sure whether it was exactly what the task required though.

"Specialising in film has perhaps shown me that I am not creative and that as opposed to visual work, I prefer producing non-fiction and writing. However, most of my work is abstract and digital and though I like analogue, the work is usually lower quality. I enjoy researching and experimenting, but I sometimes forget that it is fine to search for ways to do things that I don’t know how to do and to focus myself. I thrive in structured environments but find it difficult to create them myself, but I will push myself to get out of my comfort zone. I like blending ideas and things together and although I am not too appreciative of film and I am bad at expressing myself through art forms, I am going to try and incorporate my recent hobbies to keep my interest and put even more effort into this project."

The next thing from that was making a mind map about it. I tried to experiment with the layout and not only use words but also add some visuals to it. I think I could have added more to it but this is what I created. I think it is quite self-explanatory so I don't need to write about it.

Later I realised that I made a mind map instead if the asked for mood board and so here it is :

Here you can see points that relate to the 10 sentences I wrote about my work and influences. The images are not in size of importance but just convenience. Firstly you will see that the images are split with my work on the left and middle and my influences to the right.

In the top left you can see me experimenting with angles on a camera and seeing what kind of effect it produces. Next to it at the bottom and two the right are natural pictures. I like to photograph the scenery and landscapes but without much motivation to create a scene, more or less to just capture the beauty in nature. At the bottom left, you can see me experimenting with aperture and actually setting a scene, I was really happy with the result but the scene is quite abstract because I feel safer in creating abstract art. Next to that image to the right you see a very visually dark image. I believe I quite like the dark theme, it may be hard to see but that image is not just a black square. Next to it, to the right and on top, you see images where I experimented on Photoshop, creating weird images just because I liked it. I think the colour red comes up a lot here so perhaps I like to create with that, I am not entirely sure. I think the three portraits influenced me in different ways. The Martin Parr portrait is something I really like and would wish to create something similar, the wacky nature of it reminds me of other images I have created. 'The Desperate Man' portrait seems raw and real and it influenced me to go for a more natural theme for images I create. The self portrait by Ana Mendieta, was very interesting to me, I found it quite ambiguous especially as it has not title, I find it very mysterious and I think it really makes me feel like I am allowed to have creations where the meaning is not clear to everyone. At the bottom right you see a mood board of texts which was created by my tutor, that mood board really helped me during the last project and I am still interested in text and language so I added it here. Now, the one on top of it you see a scene set by Thomas Friedrich Schaefer recreating his childhood. The scene itself is very beautiful and very intriguing but I have noticed in my work that I particularly like to add things or make things relating to childhood, and one's self which is why I added it here.